Mica’s “back-of-the-envelope” bill is here

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman John Mica has just ended a two-hour webcast introduction of the $230B, six-year bill that he wants to replace SAFETEA-LU. Now I have to go through the bill itself to find the details.

His core points were that this is a six year bill because a two year bill that some people want (including some powerful Democrat Senators) would “bankrupt the Highway Trust Fund” and that while it comes to about $35B a year on paper the actual value is “more than twice that.” The number he used was $75.5B. That figure, he said, came from his doing some quick math , back-of-the envelope style.